Kelley Honeymoon (Day 3) - Northern Sonoma Valley

Day #3 of our Kelley Honeymoon Adventures began much like our day two did.  Up way before everyone else it seemed (STILL on Texas time), we headed North to see what the upper region of Sonoma had to offer.  Breathtaking views and beautiful rolling hills followed us everywhere!  On NO agenda, we went where the wind took us and ended up at some really GREAT wineries!  :)

As we wandered the hills of Sonoma, we stumbled upon Wine Country's very own geyser!  Dubbed "Old Faithful", we waited for the geyser to show us it's stuff!  Mighty impressive for an itty bitty thing I must say! 

There she blows!

Oh... nevermind.. maybe it was just a hiccup!

Oh wait!  There she goes again!! 

It actually lasted quite a long time...

At the same geyser park, we found some friends... :)

What a cutie..  :)

Our next stop found us at yet another of my favorite vineyards... Sterling.

Wow!  What a drive up!

In order to actually GET to the vineyard, we had to take an aerial tram!  I thought it was amazing... Chad on the other hand, had some reservations at first.  (he's not too keen on heights)

This is his Oh Crap face.. lol..

After he got a look at these amazing views, I think he got over his initial fears...

I spy a smile on that gorgeous face! 

On top of the world!

On a self guided tour, we found ourselves overlooking the wine making area...

Tastings and a tour! 

Wine men at work...

A sea of barrels...

Because we were there in the "off season", we pretty much had the run of the entire place!

LITERALLY felt like we were on top of the world... Just spectacular! 

The sun was out, there was a soft breeze blowing... the air was crisp... it was PERFECT!

After we joined the "Sterling Wine of the Month" club... or something like that, they whisked us away to a private dining area where we were able to sample some MORE wines on their special "reserved list"... 

Made us feel pretty damn important that's for sure..... lol..

Chad, making our selections..

Headed back down...

Looks like he's feeling pretty good now... :)

Picking up our booty... lol... Not only did we join their wine club, but we also came back with more than a case of their wine... I'm not much of a wine drinker, but I certainly found one of my ultimate favorites here...

Sterling- Malvasia Bianca

Next stop, August Briggs

After we made friends with the winemakers nephew, he took us on a private tour of their small but extremely successful facilities. 

Being one of Chad's favorite wines, he was thrilled to get an up close and personal view of the wine making process...   We even got to taste wines straight from the barrel that was still aging!  Very cool stuff! 

This was their ENTIRE stock for the year...

Can you spot my love??  ;)

And this is where they make it all... crazy...

Kelley Honeymoon (Day 2) - Southern Sonoma Valley

The two hour time change really helped us out this first COMPLETE day in wine country.  Having gone to bed at our normal (Texas) hour, we arose with the crows the next morning and took to the long and beautiful winding roads of Sonoma Valley.  The drive was absolutely BREATHTAKING, as it seemed that our wedding colors followed us to California!  The changing leaves in beautiful shades of red, gold, green and yellow were truly postcard worthy... our pictures obviously don't do it justice. 

Although every vineyard had pretty much harvested already, we were able to find a few vines along the way that still had their grapes!  What a beautiful sight! 

Who knew Sonoma Valley was so desolate?!  We couldn't, for the life of us, find ANY place to have breakfast!  After making our way into the tinest of tiny towns, we finally stumbled across the Hoffman House, which was, by my chef's standards, PRETTY DAMN GOOD!! 

We sure were lucky to find that place... we would've had to survive on grapes. :)

Even this tiny town had great looking surroundings!

Set deep into Chalk Hill, Jordan winery had one spectacular setting. 

Although it wasn't open to the public, we took a look around anyway because the building and setting was so amazing.  :) 

Our first tasting of our trip was at SIMI, where Chad and I bought our first "Anniversary Wine"...

After touring some other pretty outstanding wineries in the area, we ended up at one of my favorites, Ferrari Carano.  I hadn't heard of it before, and I STILL don't know much about their wine, but the grounds were absolutely fabulous... equipped with a spectacular garden for visitors to tour... and awesome underground barrel & tasting room. 

View of the huge Farrari Carano Garden from the gazebo. 

Being my typical cheesehead self...  :)

Walking....walking... walking... and look what we find!  Supposedly the owners of the winery had a SWINE problem back in the day... and having a love/hate relationship with it... they decided the only proper thing to do was to give the little guy his own statue! 

Rubbing his nose for good luck??  Apparently it was what all the cool kids were doing... lol..

So we thought we would be cool kids too! 

View of the barrel room... obviously.. lol

The hubs..being silly...

I thought I would spare you and HIM the other funny pictures that preceeded this one...

(Guess you are going to have to rely on your imagination!)